Idea Of The Day. A new Idea Each Day. Some Don't Suck.

It's been nearly a year since I've posted a new video on my YouTube Channel, but my new studio is just about ready for prime time and I'm ready to start posting my daily videos.

In today's video, I'm giving you a backstage tour of my new studio. It's still a work in progress, but it's coming together even better than I expected.

In addition to painting the rest of the walls blue (so I have an alternate background for chroma-keying), I've also added a new WhisperRoom voice isolation booth, so I'll have a quiet place to record voice-overs, audio books, and other narration. I've dabbled a bit with voice-overs, having done a few of my own commercials for CouponPages.Com, so I decided to take it to the next level. The Whisper Room is the first of... [More]

Back in the Saddle Again!

It's been months since I've posted a new video, but I'm coming back... very soon!

It's not easy creating a daily blog, especially one with a new video each day, but for what it's worth, I made it a point to find the time every day to post my daily ramblings. It was the highlight of my day, and for the most part, I looked forward to it.

So what happened?

As of the day of my last post, I already filmed at least a dozen more videos that were ready to run. All I needed to do was edit them, and write the blog post, but I didn't. My dog, Peekie, died that day and I just wasn't in the mood. The next day came and went, and I skipped them too. Before you knew it, weeks, then months passed without posting anything.

Back in the 80's, a lot of people opposed Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. It's time we expand on it even further.

It's time we put politics behind us, and do whatever it takes to insure the world is safe from nuclear weapons. The best way to do that is to expand on Ronald Reagan's SDI program, and make sure that any nuclear attack on the US, or ANY country can be PREVENTED.

Many people opposed Reagan's SDI program because they felt it would EXPAND the Cold War, because it could potentially give the US a First Strike Advantage, because it could allow us to shoot down the USSR's first wave of missiles, so that we could respond with our own. While that rhetoric might've had some truth in the 80s, the reality is we still don't have this kind of technology,... [More]

We Don't Need No Stinking Badges!

The Apple Watch is proof that Apple is committed to fitness. I think it's time they put their money where their mouth is.

Instead of offering cute little animation badges whenever you reach a fitness goal, why not give people something tangible... like an iTunes song? It would be a great motivation and also a great way to promote new artists and songs.

Why are paper bags so rare?

I grew up in the 70s. Back then, just about every store used paper bags, not plastic. By the end of the decade, stores started to make the change to plastic bags, because they were considered a better alternative to cutting down trees. This never made sense to me. We moved away from an organic product made from trees, to a synthetic product that doesn't even break down in landfills. Why is that better?

While I completely understand the underlying problem that cutting down trees to make paper that will eventually be thrown out, I can't understand the solution. Instead of paper bags, why didn't we focus on building better recycling programs? I realize there weren't many paper recycling programs back in the 70s, but switching to plastic was not... [More]

Why do computers "get slower" over time?

People come to me all the time with their technical questions, and the most popular question of all time is "Why is my computer so SLOW!?". It doesn't sound all that complicated. You own a computer. The computer USED to be fast, so why not ask what went wrong, and how you can make it fast again? Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that.

First, let me explain one simple fact. The speed of your computer chips doesn't change over time. It can still do the same number of transactions per second that it did the day you bought it. Chances are, the real problem is that computer software and web sites get bigger and more complicated every day, and your older computer is simply not powerful enough to run the latest software.

Do you remember Milli Vanilli?

Milli Vanilli were the hottest group of the early 90s. They had a string of top-40 hits, won all sorts of awards including Grammy Awards for best new group, and they sold tons of records. What could go wrong? Everything.

The problem was they were accused of being a "fake group", when it was revealed that they didn't sing on their own records or music videos. It was a huge scandal, and they were even stripped of their Grammy Awards.

Here's the thing. HOW can ANYONE be considered a "Fake Group?" That simply doesn't make sense. If a group makes a record, it's a group. If people like the music, they'll buy the records and play them on the radio. What's the difference WHO lip synched the songs on MTV. There was still SOMEBODY who sang the... [More]

Can you tell the difference between a Nerd and a Geek?

I'm not a Nerd. I'm a Geek. Contrary to what a lot of people think, there's a difference. While it may be true that both Geeks and Nerds share similar interests in technology and science, they're completely different in one key area, social interests.

Nerds tend to be introverts, and are very quiet and shy, whereas Geeks are social butterflies who love to share their Geeky passions with anyone and everyone. Whereas Nerds find it hard speaking up at a party, Geeks won't think twice about running around in a Batman cape while eating in a French restaurant. That's a pretty big difference.

Geeks also tend to explore all sorts of strange passions. There are Music Geeks, Camping Geeks, Movie Geeks, Japanese Anime Geeks,... [More]

QR Codes are EVERYWHERE... so why doesn't Apple include a built-in QR Reader?

Who the heck came up with a name like that?

Although the names of sports teams can be a little strange, most teams spend at least some time coming up with a good name. Florida has the Marlins, Colorado has the Rockies, Houston has the Astros, but why the heck would you name your team after a pair of sox?

Sox? Red Sox? As strange as that is, Chicago has the White Sox. It's just plain strange.

We need a better way to share files with friends, family, and co-workers.

I love the way iCloud lets me share my files between all my devices. I can create a file on my iMac, and the same file automatically appears on all my other Macs, plus my iPhone, and iPad. It's like magic.

The only problem is, it's not easy sharing files with other people. You can share individual files, but there's no way to share an entire folder.

Beware of deceptive food labels!

One of my pet peeves is deceptive food labels designed to trick people into thinking unhealthful foods are actually good for you. The trouble is, they're everywhere, so it can be hard to read between the lines and choose the right things to eat.

The funny thing is, just about every food with a label is somewhat unhealthful, so it's not surprising that so many labels are deceptive. If you want to avoid deceptive labelling entirely, you're best bet is to eat as much food from the fresh produce section in the supermarket. Fresh fruits and vegetables don't usually have labels, mainly because you already know what you're getting. For everything else in the store, you're going to have to learn to read between the lines to find out what's good for... [More]

I'm sick and tired of all the political posts on Facebook.

Remember when social media was... social? It seems to me that the majority of the posts I see on Facebook are about politics, and frankly, I hate politics, and I'm willing to bet I'm not the only one.

The biggest problem with all these political posts is that you have no way to turn them off, and that's the inspiration for today's Idea of the Day. What I'd love to see is an option to turn off posts that you're not interested in. Don't like politics? Why not click a button that turns it off? This would have a huge impact on my Newsfeed... bye bye politics... hello cat videos.

Why do so many people accidentally dial you by mistake?

Back in the days when phones had buttons instead of touch screens, people would often make the mistake of putting their phones into their pockets without locking them, and find out they "Butt Dialed" somebody by mistake. You can tell when you've received a Butt Dial when you can hear the other person, but they can't hear you, because their phones aren't even in their hands.

Now that smart phones have touch screens, you'd think that problem would've gone away, but I still get quite a few of these kinds of calls, but people still call you accidentally, simply by touching the screen as they put the phone away. That's the inspiration for today's idea of the day.

It's not easy getting rid of personal items.

Many people find it hard getting rid of personal items because they're afraid they'll lose the memories that are attached to them. That's why so many people have closets, garages, and attics full of personal items.

I have to admit, I'm one of those people, but I'm starting to make progress. In the past couple of years, I've thrown out hundreds of plastic tote boxes full of objects that I've been saving since my childhood, simply because they remind me of my past. The root of the problem is the fact that so many of those objects remind me of places I've been, people I've known, and thing's I've done. When you throw objects like that away, you get this feeling inside that you no longer care about the memories they represent, so yo... [More]

Why are there so many spam comments about free music on YouTube?

I'm not sure why, but somehow I've been getting a ton of spam lately about royalty free music as comments on my YouTube Channel. Why is that? Am I the only one who noticed? Are other people getting them too? Just curious.

Leave a comment on my YouTube Channel... I'd love to know what you think.

Why is deep breathing so important to meditation?

One of the most interesting features of the Apple Watch is the Breathing App, which prompts you several times a day to remind you to "Breathe". Can you imagine that? A technology company taking the time and effort to make "Breathing" a central option in a major product line. Why would they do that?

When Apple introduced the Apple Watch, they didn't focus much on it's ability to tell time, or even make phone calls. They focused on its health benefits, and as far as Apple (and many doctors) are concerned, taking a few minutes each day to breathe is an important part of being healthy.

Here's what you need to know to protect yourself from today's hackers.

When most people think of "Hacking", they envision a genius programmer hammering away at the keyboard in a attempt to break into your computer. The truth is, most hackers aren't like that at all. In fact, many hackers today aren't even computer savvy. They're just good at tricking people into giving away their passwords and other personal information.

That's because today's hackers know that it's much easier to trick somebody into GIVING them their password than it is to try to hack it. All it takes is a few cut and paste skills to put together realistic looking emails and web sites that fool people into thinking they're the real thing. Then it becomes a numbers game. If they send a realistic looking... [More]

Believe it or not, sometimes it's best to procrastinate.

Although procrastination is the root of many productivity problems, sometimes it can actually be a great strategy, especially if you need to get a bunch of complex tasks done over a long period of time.

For example, let's say you need to get 25 complex tasks done in 25 days. While some people will try to get as many of the tasks done on the first day, and other people might wait until the last day, the best approach is to do one task each day for each of the 25 days.

The reason this approach works best is that it lets your mind fully digest each task and recover before taking on the next task. Using this approach, you start each day with the cumulative confidence gained from completing each of the tasks you've tackl... [More]

What the heck happened to Social Media?

It's becoming uncomfortable using social media these days because it seems to me that all you see lately is politics, and it's getting nasty. Why is that? Social media started out simple enough. You shared pictures and funny stories about your weekend with all your friends, family, and co-workers, and everyone had a great time.

Somehow things change about 10 years ago, when Barack Obama realized how he could tap into social media to organize his supporters. Ever since then it seems that just about every post you see has some political agenda, and it shows no sign of slowing down.

Before social media, I had no idea what some of my closest friends and family felt about political issues, and frankly, I liked it that way. For what it's... [More]

The acoustics in public bathrooms stinks!

One of the problems with bathrooms is they're loaded with hard surfaces that have a tendency to echo and amplify the kinds of sounds that nobody wants to hear in the first place.

Let's face it, none of us likes public restrooms, and I've already posted more than a few rants about how they can be improved. Today I'm going to tackle another 800 pound gorilla... the SOUNDs you hear in public restrooms, and what I think should be done about it.

At the root of the problem is the complete lack of soft surfaces and background noise, making just about any sound uncomfortably loud. It wouldn't be so bad, but the few sounds you hear aren't exactly pleasant. The sound of silence is deafening, which is probably why you hear so many people cl... [More]

* Note: The ideas on "Idea of the Day" were posted without any formal research into existing inventions.

In some cases, patents may already exist for these ideas, in other cases, there may not be any existing patents and you are free to develop and explore the viability of developing and patenting the ideas.

The authors make no claim that any of the ideas are safe, practical, or suitable for any particular purpose. You are responsible for the results of trying, developing, patenting or using any of the ideas on this site.

For some people, our ideas are just an interesting read, but our goal is to encourage you to take action. If you see an idea that you like, do something with it... Take action.